Anonymous
Post 12/20/2016 07:06     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
Anonymous wrote:My 14 year old loves tinkering with electronics...like taking a motor out of an old vcr and wiring it into a different circuit to make something else...that sort of thing. Is electrical engineering still a thing? I know nothing about this stuff.


EE is still a "think". My DC just took his first linear circuit analysis class as a sophomore in a "Top 10 Engineering school".
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2016 06:42     Subject: Re:What's the best engineering concentration?
What an odd question. How do you define best?
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2016 06:37     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
Everyone I know who did the fire protection engineer degree at Maryland is making big $$. They all work in oil, though. But they don't have petroleum engineering degrees. So I'm not sure how that really played out. I would not do a degree in petroleum engineering itself. That will be obsolete in 30 years.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2016 06:30     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
My 14 year old loves tinkering with electronics...like taking a motor out of an old vcr and wiring it into a different circuit to make something else...that sort of thing. Is electrical engineering still a thing? I know nothing about this stuff.
Anonymous
Post 12/20/2016 00:22     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
Anonymous wrote:Is it still electrical/computer science (Silicon Valley)? Biomedical? Aerospace?

...operations is the joke sort of easy one, right?


I am Industrial Engineer with degree from Georgia Tech. (#1 in Industrial Engineering for last 30 years.) I know some people call it Imaginary Engineering.
But believe me you need to be smart and good at Math to be good at it.
It includes a lot, including simulation, operations research, advance statistics etc.
Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 22:05     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
honestly, in any kind of engineering, the more you love what you do, the more successful you will be. If you think about it first thing when you wake up, and last thing before you fall asleep, it is the right field for you.

If not, just get an MBA.
Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 21:17     Subject: Re:What's the best engineering concentration?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Any engineering -> patent office -> law school... Patent attorney... most attorneys are not smart enough to do engineering so there is a need. It's the highest paying for lawyers and you don't have to do Big Law with a bunch of douches.


+1

If you want $$.

Or any engineering, MBA, finance.

Engineering as a career isn't the most lucrative. It's good out of undergrad but then tops out not long after. For someone who wants to stick with engineering then they will find the "flavor" that they love.

For the most flexibility, computer science owns up a lot of doors.



But only if you're good at it. I see plenty of kids to whom a computer was little more than a utility in high school going full bore into computer science majors and struggling because they're not that into it.



If you can make it through it will still open up doors all over the country in a wide variety of industries. Not just in software engineering.
Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 21:15     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
Anonymous wrote:Is there really a better lifestyle than computer science -> exciting tech startup or blue chip AAPL-GOOGL-AMZN? $100k and stock options and every colleague is smart. These kids make $15k-25k per summer internship, too!


Sure, it's fun for a few years. The big money long-term is in finance. Maybe patent law too. You might get lucky at a startup, but slim chances there. If you're looking for the money like OP.

Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 20:25     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
Anonymous wrote:Is it still electrical/computer science (Silicon Valley)? Biomedical? Aerospace?

...operations is the joke sort of easy one, right?


Sanitation Engineering.

I'm only half joking. They average close to $90K in New York. It's steady work. You can do it for 30 years and retire on a nice pension.
Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 12:20     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
Is there really a better lifestyle than computer science -> exciting tech startup or blue chip AAPL-GOOGL-AMZN? $100k and stock options and every colleague is smart. These kids make $15k-25k per summer internship, too!
Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 12:13     Subject: Re:What's the best engineering concentration?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Any engineering -> patent office -> law school... Patent attorney... most attorneys are not smart enough to do engineering so there is a need. It's the highest paying for lawyers and you don't have to do Big Law with a bunch of douches.


+1

If you want $$.

Or any engineering, MBA, finance.

Engineering as a career isn't the most lucrative. It's good out of undergrad but then tops out not long after. For someone who wants to stick with engineering then they will find the "flavor" that they love.

For the most flexibility, computer science owns up a lot of doors. [/quote]


But only if you're good at it. I see plenty of kids to whom a computer was little more than a utility in high school going full bore into computer science majors and struggling because they're not that into it.

Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 11:23     Subject: Re:What's the best engineering concentration?
Anonymous wrote:Any engineering -> patent office -> law school... Patent attorney... most attorneys are not smart enough to do engineering so there is a need. It's the highest paying for lawyers and you don't have to do Big Law with a bunch of douches.


Can you elaborate on how patent lawyers can avoid Big Law?
Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 11:06     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
The choice of engineering flavor will also affect geographic opportunities, so if DC has a preference of where to live that's worth considering after what they enjoy.
Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 10:06     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
Second the patent lawyer suggestion, but really the answer is, the one you enjoy. Trying to be a square peg in a round hole gets soul crushing very quickly regardless of salary. If you're a mercenary type who doesn't really care what you do as long as you get paid well (and those people definitely exist), though, I think biomedical engineering and AI are the rising fields.
Anonymous
Post 12/19/2016 09:51     Subject: What's the best engineering concentration?
EE-CS at a top 10 engineering college will net you $100k offers. Doesn't get much better than living in San Fran and making $100k at 22.